2008 General Meeting Notice

Meeting date: 18 September 2008

1 – Announcement: Annual General Meeting

Section 12 of the By Laws of the SIP Forum (the “Forum”) provides that the Forum hold an annual general meeting that is open to all members. In accordance with the By Laws, this document shall serve as official notice for the Annual Meeting of the SIP Forum to be held as follows:

1.1 – Date / time of meeting

The meeting will be in a meeting room in conjunction with Internet Telephony Conference and EXPO Fall 2008.

Consult the Internet Telephony EXPO program directory or event signs in the convention center for specific room location information on the date of the meeting.

2 – Subject matter for the meeting

In the meeting, a review of the financial operations, including a review of the audit for fiscal year 2008, will be provided, as well as a review of the operational activities that have occurred over the past 12 months since the last General meeting.

If you are not planning on attending the general meeting, it is imperative that you complete and return a proxy vote.

If you are planning on attending the general meeting, we still encourage you to complete and return a proxy vote.

Votes must be received from > 50% of Full Members in order to have a valid election.

The deadline described below for returning ballots is 17 September 2008.

3 – Board member elections

Members of the Board of Directors serve for two-year terms, with terms expiring at the general meeting that takes place at the end of this term. Elections for new board members will take place at this general meeting.

There are five Board seats expiring this year. They are the seats currently held by Chris Gatch, Steve Johnson, Dave Oran, Anwar Siddiqui, and Robert Sparks. The seats held by Eric Burger, Mark Enstrom and Richard Shockey are not expiring.

3.1 – Voting limits

Our By Laws indicate that only two Directors may be Participating Members at any one time. Eric Burger currently holds one of the Participating Member seats. Therefore, at most only one Director who is a Participating Member can be elected in this election.

You will be voting by expressing a preference order for candidates. This preference order will be used to tally the Directors who are elected.

3.2 – Who can vote

Each Full (paying) Member is entitled to a single vote on the matters being presented for a vote. Each Full Member has the right to vote either in person, electronically, or by an agent authorized by a proxy validly executed by the Full Member. A proxy shall be executed by written authorizations signed by the Full Member, giving the proxy holder the right to vote the vote.

Full Members not planning on attending the meeting in person can utilize a proxy form provided with this general meeting announcement package. The proxy provides a method to vote for the Director candidates, and grants to the Managing Director of the SIP Forum the right to cast the vote on behalf of the Full Member giving the proxy. Alternately, a Full Member can cast a vote electronically, as described in Section 5 of this notice.

The Board strongly urges you to submit a vote by proxy, even if you plan on attending the general meeting.

3.4 – Candidate statements and biographies

The statements by the candidates about their desire to serve on the board, along with their biographies, are shown here as provided by each candidate. The Board strongly recommends you read these, as we seek Directors who will add substantial value, so it is crucial your vote is well informed.

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order by last name. Please do not allow this order to influence your voting.

The Board has not endorsed any slate of candidates.

3.4.1 – Chris Gatch – Cbeyond

3.4.1.1 – Statement of candidacy

My interest in a Director position on the SIP Forum Board is founded in my motivation to continue the advancement of the SIP Forum’s mission to promote the deployment of SIP. I believe this can happen by continuing the Forum’s activities to communicate information to industry members as well as driving SIP Forum recommendations that simplify the deployment scenarios for SIP-based services. In addition to supporting the pursuits of the SIP Forum team, my focus would be on increasing service provider participation in the SIP Forum and increasing the availability of easy-to-use SIP-based services via task groups that produce business level standards such as SIPconnect.

During my last 2 years as a Board Member I have contributed to the SIP Forum by helping finalize SIPconnect 1.1 and advance its awareness through many SIP Forum conference events. I also led the launch of the SIPconnect Compliant program, and played an important role in the recruitment of Marc Robins, our new executive director.

If elected to serve again, I bring to the SIP Forum board proven leadership and board director experience, a passion for SIP and VoIP-based technology, experience interacting with press and analysts, good conference presentation skills, and a background in the service provider side of our industry.

3.4.1.2 – Biography

Chris Gatch is the CTO and a founder of Cbeyond (NASDAQ: CBEY), a successful managed services provider started in 1999 and now publicly traded on the NASDAQ. Chris is responsible for Cbeyond’s Application Services department as well as on-going technology research and development. Chris has a bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from Clemson University and a master’s degree in the management of technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology. He has served on the boards of the Cisco BTS 10200 Users Group, the Service Provider Board of the International Packet Communications Consortium (IPCC), and the SIP Forum. Chris has been professionally committed to VoIP technology since 1998.

Chris helped lead the formation of the SIP Forum’s Service Provider to IP PBX Interoperability Task Group for which he submitted the proposal to create. This task group produced the SIPconnect SIP Forum recommendation of which Chris was an editor along with Chris Sibley.

3.4.2 – Steve Johnson – Ingate Systems

3.4.2.1 – Statement of candidacy

Ingate Systems has been committed to the SIP protocol since it was first introduced by the Internet Engineering Task Force. Since that time, we have been working to develop enterprise security products and innovative software solutions that not only put SIP within reach of any business (from the smallest home office to the largest corporation), but extend the benefits of SIP beyond the LAN. Our goal is to help speed the transition to true global connectivity, when everyone can be reached regardless of location, as long as there’s a connection to the Internet. We also believe that SIP is the true leveler for businesses. Small businesses can now offer the same kind of services, leverage the cost-saving benefits of VoIP, as their largest competitor. It provides a benchmark for interoperability, which means that one day (hopefully soon) all SIP devices will be “plug and play.”

There is much to be done in raising awareness of SIP, its benefits, the possibilities, and in driving interoperability. We believe the SIP Forum is an excellent resource for developers and end users alike. We would look forward to the opportunity to participate as a member of the SIP Forum Board of Directors, to help shape the direction of SIP.

3.4.2.2 – Biography

As President of Ingate Systems Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Ingate Systems A.B., Steven Johnson is responsible for building market recognition and developing multiple sales channels for Ingate products within the United States. Johnson boasts 15 years senior management experience with Sanders Associates, Telco Systems, and Lockheed Martin. Most recently he served as CEO of Abrena, Inc, a business development consulting firm focused on assisting European and North American firms to expand in the United States. Prior to that, he was President and CEO of Transcept Inc, a telecommunications infrastructure company. Johnson is a member of the Board of Directors for the SIP Forum, an industry organization with members from the leading SIP technology companies. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master’s in Business Administration from Boston University.

3.4.3 – Glenn Russell – CableLabs

3.4.3.1 – Statement of candidacy

I’ve been involved with the SIP Forum for almost six months. During this time have been actively evangelizing the importance of SIPConnect within the cable industry. This has resulted in new membership opportunities for the SIP Forum, and important new technical contributions that are accelerating the work program.

Going forward, I believe it is important to increase cross industry cooperation and commitment to our initiatives. Broadening the range of vendor and service providers who are actively involved will help to accelerate the development of interoperable products, and produce more choice for our customers.

I believe that the products and services that will emerge from our SIPConnect initiative have the potential to have a very disruptive (positive) effect on the enterprise communications market. I’m firmly committed to developing and advancing SIP Forum programs that help to drive this important initiative.

In my 10 years at CableLabs, I’ve both written and managed technical groups responsible for the development of PacketCable interface specifications. I’ve a strong track record of working with the equipment manufacturing community and the cable operators to develop deployable communications technology. A critical component to our success has been the ability to work collaboratively with industry fora and standards bodies outside of cable, including the IETF, ITU-T, MEF, 3GPP, TiSPAN. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to apply my prior experience to the leadership of the SIP Forum.

3.4.3.2 – Biography

Glenn Russell is the Director of Business Services at Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. (CableLabs®). In this position he is responsible for all strategic planning and development activities within CableLabs that support the cable industry’s business and commercial services initiatives. This includes setting the specification development and interoperability program for SIP-based communications services.

Prior to his current position, Mr. Russell served as the Director of the PacketCable™ project where was responsible for the overall PacketCable specification development and interoperability testing program for Voice over IP over cable broadband networks. As Director of PacketCable, Mr. Russell established the interoperability and certification programs at CableLabs that resulted in CableLabs certified products. Today, cable operators serve more than 10 million customers using PacketCable-based VoIP technology.

Prior to joining CableLabs®, Mr. Russell spent 7 years in business development and technical product management in the business teleconferencing industry. During this time he helped found the International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium (IMTC) and helped develop the T.120 and H.320 conferencing standards. Mr. Russell earned his BA in Economics (magna cum laude) from the University of Colorado at Boulder and completed two years of graduate school in the Interdisciplinary Telecommunications Program at the University of Colorado.

CableLabs is a research and development consortium of cable television system operators worldwide. CableLabs plans and funds research and development projects that will help cable companies take advantage of future opportunities and meet future challenges in the cable television industry. It also transfers relevant technologies to member companies and to the industry. In addition, CableLabs acts as a clearinghouse to provide information on current and prospective technological developments that are of interest to the cable industry.

3.4.4 – Anwar Siddiqui – Avaya

3.4.4.1 – Statement of candidacy

I am currently a serving member of SIP Forum Board of Director seeking reelection for the next term.
I have always been a strong proponent of open technologies such as SIP and it has been an absolute honor for me to be able to serve the SIP Forum board during last 2 terms to promote this in the industry. With your vote I would like to continue forward. After serving the communication technology industry for 12 years, I had joined the board in 2004 with a desire to apply that experience towards understanding of SIP as a technology as it applied to enterprise customers and the vendors that serve them. I hope you agree that our efforts are bearing fruit. Today, through various SIP Forum work groups and its interoperability and certification programs such as SIPiT, SIPConnect etc I hope you see a SIP Forum that is strong and organizationally ready to take on future industry challenges. As a director I have not only used personal time to provide necessary oversight to manage the forum’s day to day operations which made those programs available but I have also contributed to some of these programs first hand. Through out the years I have also reached out to many of you to collect ideas on how to create a forum as a platform that serves its members well and incorporated those into the forum’s operational practice when I could. With my reelection you will see continuation of that open channel communication policy and a personal commitment to work on tough issues that is of importance to you at the SIP Forum Board. I have also personally reached out to vendors and service providers who are currently not members to promote the SIP Forum on every opportunity that I got to have a forum that is vibrant. It is my desire to continue to champion SIP forum’s causes and I hope you would help me do that by reelecting me as a member of the board.

3.4.4.2 – Biography

Anwar Siddiqui is currently a Director at Avaya office of the CTO. He is currently responsible for Avaya’s Strategic technology direction and actively influences companies investment priorities in the areas such as Voice over IP, Video, Conferencing and Web Collaboration, Call Center capabilities etc. Anwar brings in 12 years experience in executive management, product and portfolio management, software engineering, marketing and business development through various roles he had held at Avaya, Lucent Technologies, AT&T and C-Cube Microsystems. Anwar helped Avaya achieve a position of VoIP industry prominence by leading several key VoIP initiatives that guided the company to succeed in the market place.

Anwar has been a member of the SIP Forum Board of Director since 2004 and has been a regular and active contributor to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) . Anwar holds a Masters degreee from Columbia University in the City of New York in Electrical Engineering, and a Bachelor degree from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Bombay. He holds numerous patents in the field of computer communication, network security and privacy, and QoS.

3.4.5 – Rene Solola – CGI Group

3.4.5.1 – Statement of candidacy

We live in interesting times, where IP provides the “democratization” of telecom as it evens level playing field and increases competition. Consequently, IP users – consumers and commercial enterprises get more for less. This opens new opportunities for everyone – CSPs, hardware and software vendors and SIs, as market opportunities are limited only by creativity. SIP is a key part of this transformation.

Nevertheless, no technology or standard, however useful, can be looked at as an aspirin, solving all issues. We have seen useful technologies and standards overhyped, and subsequently losing traction. SIs are often expected to deliver on technology promises and as such provide a useful source of information and a reality check in new technology and product areas. I’m familiar with SIP through work we have done at CGI, where we deployed SIP applications as well as SIP trunking for our customers. We have worked with product suppliers to resolve issues related to such deployments.

I believe SIP Forum can not only complement the activities of the standards bodies and ensure awareness of standards and interoperability, it can also help facilitate adoption through informing its membership about best practices and helping resolve different issues, thus maximizing SIP’s full potential in the industry.

3.4.5.2 – Biography

I have been involved in bringing new technologies and products to the market throughout most of my career. Most have been successful, but some have not. One of the important lessons learned is that technical merit isn’t necessarily enough for a standard or technology to succeed. Once I once a bumper sticker proclaiming “Standards are wonderful – there are so many to choose from!”.

My role as a VP in the Global Telecommunications practice in CGI includes working on strategy direction for the next generation telecom offering development as well as marketing. I enjoy speaking at US and international events and contribute to publications and analyst briefings. My experience includes senior management and technical roles, serving as Development Manager, Product Manager, Business Unit Manager and CTO at various times, both in Europe and North America. I’m a Chartered Engineer in IEEE, a Chartered Member of the British Computer society, hold two M.S. degrees and was awarded a patent in the area of order orchestration.

3.4.6 – Robert Sparks – Tekelec

3.4.6.1 – Statement of candidacy

The wonderful growth of the SIP industry brings new challenges. It is clear that interoperability of implementations of open standards has been an important part of that growth. In order to retain the current momentum, I will continue to focus on advancing interoperability and standards through my continuing oversight of the SIPit events. Being a SIP Forum Director while managing these events helps guide the Board on operational and policy decisions surrounding them. As a continuing SIP Forum Board Director, I will continue to bring to the Board the insights gained through our SIPit events, as well as identifying areas where our Recommendations will make the industry stronger through my deep involvement in the IETF standards development process. As our success continues, we must work carefully to ensure that we retain a single, open SIP standard that pertains to the real needs in commercial deployments, and that implementations continue to work together to the highest possible degree.

3.4.6.2 – Biography

Robert Sparks is currently Chair of the SIP Forum Test Event Working Group, and in this role manages SIP Forum activities required surrounding the SIPit test events, as well as advising the Forum Board of Directors on suggested future SIPit direction.

Robert is a Principal Engineer at Tekelec. Before joining Tekelec, he was the VP of Research and Development at Estacado Systems, CTO at Xten Networks (now CounterPath) and has held management and research positions at Dynamicsoft, Lucent, MCI, and Texas A&M University. For over 8 years, Robert has focused on designing and developing SIP-based IP communications systems.

Robert is a co-author of the core SIP specification, RFC3261, and several of its updates and extensions. He chairs the IETF’s SIMPLE and GEOPRIV working groups. Robert has focused on improving the level of interoperability of SIP implementations by coordinating the SIPIt and SIMPLEt interoperability events. Robert is also an active contributor to the reSIProcate project.

Robert has a BSc in Computer Science and a MSc in Mathematics from Texas A & M University.

3.4.7.1 – Statement of candidacy

I have always viewed the SIP Forum as the leading organization in telecommunications. The SIP Forum and it’s members have worked to make SIP the solution for voice and multimedia communications. The SIP Forum works with a variety of companies which gives it a great breath of understanding and knowledge of the industry. Given this opportunity I would use my past knowledge to help the SIP Forum continue and grow it’s mission of promoting reliability, scalability, and interoperability.

Working at the University of New Hampshire Interoperability Laboratory has given me a keen insight to interoperability and deployment issues. As a neutral third party I could bring the knowledge to the table to help the SIP Forum move forward with it’s endeavors. I also have experience working with IPv6 Forum and there programs ranging from plugfest to successful logo programs. I would like to bring the experiences I’ve learned from IPv6 Forum to help the SIP Forum grow as an organization.

3.4.7.2 – Biography

Timothy Winters began working for the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory in June of 2001. With a BS degree in Computer Science, Timothy currently has the following responsibilities as the UNH-IOL’s IP Manager and VoIP Manager. He is also a connectivity specialist along with deployment advisor for Moonv6, the largest permanent IPv6 test network.

Timothy’s work has led him to become an expert for the following network areas. He currently has knowledge of Routing protocols OSPF, BGP, and PIM. He has also done work with MPLS interoperability. Recently Timothy has taken the lead on developing SIPv6 and IMS IPv6 Ready Logos for the IPv6 Forum’s IPv6 Ready program. He has also co-authored multiple white papers and test suites at the UNH-IOL in the areas mentioned above.

Timothy continues to work with many Industry Forums including the North American IPv6 Task Force, IPv6Forum, IPv6 Ready Logo Committee, MSF, IMS Forum and SIP Forum. This allows him to design real-world and worst-case test scenarios with respect to IPv6 and Voice over IP technologies and work along side commercial services providers, network equipment vendors and the government agencies

4 – Discharge of liability for Board Members and Managing Director

The By Laws of the SIP Forum require that, at each general meeting, the members vote on whether to discharge the Board Members and the Managing Director from liability for actions or inactions resulting from their service to the SIP Forum over the prior year. This discharge is a normal practice for non-profit organizations based in Sweden. In all annual general meetings to date, this has been presented, and the Board Members have been accordingly discharged. At this time, the Board represents that the Directors and Managing Director have collectively performed all required responsibilities for this past year, and requests discharge from liability. Full Members shall vote Yes or No on their ballots to so discharge the Board and Managing Director.

The Board recommends a Yes vote on this item.

5 – Modification of By-Laws Relating to Creation of New Academic Membership Category

The SIP Forum Board of Directors has proposed the creation of a new mid-level SIP Forum Academic/Institutional membership category. This membership category will have no voting rights and will carry no membership dues and will be open only to qualified Adademic Institutions including universities, colleges and other accredited educational and research entities.

Please review the proposed By-Law changes (changes are highlighted in yellow), which are available here:

6 – Procedure for voting

The By Laws permit voting in person at the general meeting. Voting can also be done by proxy, using paper ballots or electronically submitted ballots that are returned using a method that the Board deems sufficient to establish the authenticity of the ballot

6.1 – Written proxy

Included in the bundle distributed to the Full Members with this general meeting notice is a ballot document entitled “Voting Form.” If a Full Member intends to submit a ballot to vote by written proxy (instead of in person), each Full Member should do the following.

6.1.1 – Minimal procedure for proxy voting

The Full Member shall mark the ballot (either by modifying the document to indicate the mark, or by printing the document and marking it in ink) to:

Rank your votes for Director’s candidates. Mark your first preference “1”, your second preference “2”, and so on. You may vote for as many candidates as you wish, but we recommend you vote for at least 3.

Approve or reject the discharge of Directors’ liability.

Approve or reject the change in SIP Forum bylaws related to the creation of a new SIP Forum Academic/Institutional membership category.

Deliver the paper ballot by hand to the SIP Forum Managing Director prior to the date of the general meeting. Or, send the ballot via surface mail to the address listed on the ballot, or send a facsimile to the fax number listed on the first page of the ballot form.

6.2 Electronic voting

The Board has concluded that two methods are acceptable for electronic voting:

Full Members may cast their vote on an Internet web page supplied by the SIP Forum for this purpose. The web page voting method must (a) assure only one vote per Full Member, and (b) permit only one, Member-designated representative of the Full Member to cast the vote, and (c) the voting interface must be password-protected. The SIP Forum has implemented a web interface that meets these requirements, and which will be used for the voting for this year. A URL for this voting will be supplied under separate cover (when voting opens).

Alternately, it is sufficient for Full Members to mark a paper ballot, and return it to the Managing Director via electronic mail. The Managing Director shall use reasonable efforts to assure that the received email has been sent from a domain name that appears to be from a Full Member organization. The 2008 Voting Ballot can be downloaded here.

6.2.1 Web ballots

Full Members wishing to vote by electronic ballot shall vote at the following URL:

Because this URL is actually login-protected, the actual procedure to vote is as follows:

Log in. Login to the SIP Forum website using the username of your designated voting representative.(Please contact the SIP Forum Managing Director to confirm, or change, the name of this representative.)

Find the ballot. When logged in, a menu entry entitled “2008 Gen’l Meeting vote” will appear in the User Menu in the upper left corner. Click this entry. A ballot form will appear.

Board candidate question. Please rank your vote for Board Member candidates. Note that the candidate list will be dynamically rearranged to show your ranking as you rank each candidate. Please do NOT rank two candidates equally.

Discharge question. Vote Yes or No on the discharge question.

New Member Category question. Vote Yes or No on the new member category question.

Vote. Click Submit Vote to complete your vote.

You may then log out of the website.

6.2.2 Email ballots

Follow this procedure to vote by email:

Mark the ballot (as above)

Print, and sign a paper copy of the marked ballot document

Scan the marked ballot document, and email the scanned, signed document to the address above. (PDF, JPG, TIFF, or GIF are all acceptable electronic formats)

You may NOT simply send an email with your voting choices in the email body.

6.3 – Deadline for ballot return for proxy voting

Ballots sent to the Managing Director to be handled by proxy must be received ON OR BEFORE 17 SEPTEMBER 2008 (one day before the general meeting) in order to be counted.

Ballots cast via the web page method may be cast at any time up until the Managing Director calls for the voting time to be closed at the general meeting. (This will permit electronic votes to be cast after Board candidates have answered questions from members at the general meeting.)

6.4 – Casting ballots in person

If a ballot is not received in email or by fax by the above deadline, the ballot can still be cast by the voting Full Member by appearing in person at the general meeting, and providing the signed, marked ballot when the vote is called.

6.5 – Ballot counting

Ballots, including those received in email, via fax, those cast on the web interface, and those cast in person, will be counted when the vote is called in the general meeting. Results will be announced at the meeting (assuming the tally method results in clear winners), and official minutes taken to reflect the voting.